Chicken Pox-best practice tips required please!

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Any good advice?

Sudocreme is pretty good for individula troublesome spots.

Bicarb of soda in the bath.

Aparantely they make calaminme as an oil based thing which is much better - dries up the spots but not all the skin.

Most of all, remember that it will all be over in a few days and then you'll (probably) never have to go through it again.

calpol and keeping as cool as possible. ds couldn't wear a nappy as it was too uncomfortable. Getting warm made him itchy. I nearly took him to casualty at 4am because he was just soooo unhappy and in agony. However he was over it in a couple of days. Try not to let them scratch, ds has pox scars on his face, just like mine.

Handful porridge oats in an old sock in the bath - sounds weird, but definitely soothes itching big time

don't freak about it

the itching is over in a couple of days then its just unsightly

porridge oats in a sock or bicarb both good, on the itchy days don't be afraid to give them a few baths during the day

calamine is crap

piriton is good

chicken pox scabs look really unsightly - try not to pull back

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piriton

Where do you live ??

I am desperate for DS to get it before he goes to school.

It has been through nursery several times, also the childminders and the creche at the gym.

So far nothing nada nyet

Homeopathic remedy Rhus tox (available from Boots)

We found the best cream for itching to be a tea tree and witch hazel one by Lanes. Bit smelly but does the trick. We also used calamine aqueous which was ok at first (in fact all the time for dd2) but eventually didn't seem effective enough for dd1. Didn't find Piriton any good actually. Depends how bad they get it - dd2 (4) didn't suffer as much or as long as dd1 (7).

LGJ-I live in Plumstead,s london. I want my oldest son to catch it off my youngest too to get it over and done with while his still young.
Thanks for all the advice-he's really suffering today-has masses in his bum which are really sore so have kept his nappy off as much as possible.

Farnham Surrey

I have deliberately taken him to places where I knew the pox were rife and nothing, have you any idea how frustrating that is for a control freak ??

Not sure how worth while it is trying to encourage children to catch it early. In our area lots of children have had it twice or even three times is becoming increasingly normal. When I asked our GP about it ( ours had chicken pox recently too) she told us that they believe that the old main strain of chickenpox that we all had as children and only caught once seems to have mutated into several other different ones that explains why children seem to catch it more than once, ie. they are really catching different strains. I guess if they get all the strains ver and done with it is good but don?t presume catching it once will be the end of it.
Agree with bicarb of soda and calpol when they have a temperature. Children?s piriton in small very occasional doses if they are suffering at night worked for us too.
Hope they get better quickly, one of ours was fine and the other took over two weeks to be back to normal (eating, sleeping, etc)

Sorry,boring subject alert!!!!
When can I take my son out when he has pox? He first showed signs of it last Tuesday,fever etc until Friday and a few spots,loads on Saturday....when is he allowed out??

Officially, when all the spots have crusted over. However, I would say depending on where you are going. I wouldnt take him anywhere where he is going to mix with young kids until his spots have crusted over but you can take him out and about, just not mixing with young children. Of course, thats unless you want to hold a chicken pox party!

Can I go to Supermarkets etc? What about pregnant women??

And at what point would a sibling be liable to catch them-beginning or end??

Surely, when the most contagious day is the day before the spots come out, then going round the supermarket with spots can't be so bad. Just keep ds from snogging any pregnant women .

We are taking our pox to a friend's house this afternoon in a sharing kind of way!

LOL-is that based on fact though? Have been putting poxy one in bath with non-poxy one and he isnt showing any signs yet nearly one week later!

There's a 10 day incubation period thought isn't there? Give it a few more days. Basically, this thing is designed to put parents through hell by having the 2nd one come out with it just as the first is getting better. Dd will be off nursery all this week, and I'm fully expecting ds to break out with spots at the weekend, thus putting all next week out of action.

though - not thought

DD got chicken pox too and I was told she was contagious 2 days b4 spots and 5 days after.

She doesn't seem to be too bad with the itching, calamine powder seems to be doing wonders.

Just a shame she picked the week when DH and I are both full of the cold she had last week!!!!!

DD2 caught chicken pox off DD1 about 2 weeks after I first seen spots on DD1. So spots were just fading on DD1 and they were erupting on DD2.

I kept both off them off nursery and away from Playgrops, we did go round to their friends house as the mum wanted her son to get chickenpox, and he didnt get. But apart from that I pretty much carried on as normal, went out shopping and went to see relatives.

Its only dangerous for Pregnant women that havent had chickenpox and most of the population has had chicken pox at some time in their lift.

At last! Today,after two weeks from 1st spot appearing on ds2,ds1 errupts!! I think that 14 day rule is quite accurate-mind you,completely different type of spots!
Just thought I'd let you know!

Ds just gotten over it... DD now COVERED in blisters! ALl over her wee girly bits and pieces... in her ears.... in her mouth! Much worse than ds. Poor wee lamb looks like a ghost with all that calamine lotion on. At least ds was old enough for Piriton! Dd is only 8.5mths old.